To Encourage S.I. Tourism In Sydney

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31094, 24 June 1966, Page 10

To Encourage S.I. Tourism In Sydney

The executive director of the biggest motel in Australia and New Zealand, Mr J. E. Player, spent yesterday in Christchurch studying the South Island tourist business.

He wants to exploit South Island tourism by using his 138-suite Motel Kings Cross, Sydney, as a stepping stone to the Haast Pass, Mount Cook, and other South Island resorts

Many Americans and Japanese, he said, helped to give his luxury motel a 92 per cent occupancy rate. Such affluent tourists and businessmen would use his motel much more if they were able to be comfortably and competently moved later to South Island resorts for relaxation, sightseeing or skiing

“As I see it, my motel can really work in with the South Island of New Zealand, to promote tourist trade to our mutual benefit," he said.

“While I am in New Zealand, !1 am going to keep my eye open for some first-class ! tourist pictures of the South Island, with the idea of prominently displaying them in Motel Kings Cross.” Mr Player said that before ihe promoted South Island tourism he wanted to know at first hand exactly what he would be promoting. He planned to stay at Tourist Hotel Corporation and other leading hotels m the South Island, including the Hermitage.

Mr Player praised the White Heron Lodge in Christchurch, where he said facilities for American or Japanese tourists were first-class. He has spent 40 years in the hotel business. At one time, he was head of the American bar at Glen Eagles Hotel. Scotland, and he managed the Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Australian Blue Mountains.

Mr Player is an honorary life member erf the United Kingdom Bartenders’ Guild and a past president of the Toastmaster International Public Speaking Club of Sydney.